The FINANCIAL — Accenture and Google Cloud have collaborated to help UPC Polska, Poland’s leading connectivity and entertainment provider, move from an on-premises infrastructure to cloud, in response to changing customer demands. Deployed in just six weeks, the new model balances UPC Polska’s traditional IT systems with the speed and flexibility of cloud services to reduce time to market and enable content personalization delivery for 1.5 million customers.
Households worldwide increasingly expect one provider to meet all their telephony, digital entertainment and broadband needs. As the choice of providers increases and switching costs decrease, telecommunications providers must provide compelling bundles and integrated experiences to create and maintain loyalty.
UPC Polska recognized that a hybrid approach to IT would provide them with the best of both worlds through cloud’s agility and speed, along with the power and comfort of still using their traditional on-premises infrastructure. They set their sights on Anthos, Google Cloud’s application modernization platform, and enlisted Accenture to assist with deployment and cultural shift management, to become a cloud-first business.
“A cloud-first move is the foundation required for digital transformation, enabling resilience, new experiences and products as well as trust, speed and structural cost reduction,” says Mariusz Chudy, managing director at Accenture in Poland. “Our collaboration in training and restructuring UPC’s IT teams allowed them to take this first step, increasing speed to market on new features and unleashing their potential for innovation.”
Drawing from its team of over 70,000 cloud professionals, Accenture provided the strategy, training and support needed to ensure a smooth cloud migration, helping UPC Polska’s IT teams and developers quickly get up to speed in just six weeks. Freed from the burden of infrastructure management and newly trained in agile methodology, UPC Polska’s developers can now focus on writing great code and delivering exceptional customer experiences while operators use Anthos to effectively manage and run those applications anywhere.
“After deciding on a hybrid approach to app modernization powered by Google Cloud’s Anthos, we knew that one of the main challenges would be gaining vital knowledge around cloud technologies and management,” said Monika Nowak-Toporowicz, chief technology officer, UPC Polska. “Having Accenture as a partner was key to overcoming this obstacle, as they focused on the cultural and organizational elements involved in rolling out a cloud-first solution and ramping up our teams, leading to a successful deployment in roughly six weeks.”
Capitalizing on Anthos’s flexibility and Accenture’s expertise as a leading cloud-first partner to the world’s major cloud providers, UPC Polska is considering taking further advantage of its new model. The company is exploring next-generation projects including improving experiences with smart home technology, as well as an integrated platform to connect mobile and fixed networks. UPC Polska is also expanding its data analytics capabilities to further personalize experiences for each user within individual households.
